Lake view: Common sense beginning to prevail about birth control

You have about a 50/50 (on the conservative side) chance that your little baby teenager has had or is having sex by age 18.

Eric Reeve, The Lake Liberal

You have about a 50/50 (on the conservative side) chance that your little baby teenager has had or is having sex by age 18. Yes, your son, your daughter, the popular girl/boy down the street and even the unpopular boy or girl up the street are very probably having teenage sex (don't discount the 12 year olds either). Now that we have established that fact and you are recovering from your initial shock, we can discuss keeping these kids safe.

U.S. District Court judge Edward Kernan has recently ruled that the "Morning after pill" can be sold over the counter to any girl aged fifteen or older without their parent's permission and without first obtaining a prescription from a physician. The judge blasted away at the FDA for limiting the pill to girls over seventeen and forcing all girls / women to produce a government photo identification to the pharmacist at the point of purchase. In judge Kernan's ruling he went on to say, "The decision to limit these types of contraceptives was politically motivated, scientifically unjustified and contrary to agency (FDA) procedure." During the ruling the judge also said that these types of restrictions were unfairly limiting the poor, the young and minorities from accessing these drugs.

What all the hoopla is about is this: there is a pill which women can use as an emergency contraception after having unprotected sex. The morning after pill is essentially a high dosage of the familiar birth control pill. It is recommended for use over a period of 72 hours after unprotected sex to prevent an unintentional or unwanted pregnancy. There are two morning after pills available, Preven and Plan B. They contain the steroids progesterone, estragon or a combination of both steroids (which are both found in normal birth control pills).

According to the Alabama Alliance Against Abortion folks, "Nearly half of all pregnancies among American women are unintended or unwanted." They go on to say, "twenty two percent of all pregnancies in America end in abortion." Most alarming to me is their statistic stating, "Eighteen percent of U.S. women obtaining abortions are between the ages of 15 - 17 years old."

What they don't mention are the staggering facts of 67% of black teenage pregnancies are unwanted or unintended in the age group of 15 - 17 year old girls. They also fail to mention that it is estimated that nearly 54% of Hispanic girls between the ages of 15 - 17 years old are unwanted or unintentional pregnancies.

Clearly we have a problem in America of unprotected kids having sex, resulting in way too many unwanted and unintentional pregnancies. We can continue to live in denial, we can continue to close our eyes and we can continue to bury our heads in the sand hoping this problem will disappear or we can do something about it now.The old (and tired) arguments that somehow providing condoms at schools encourages increased sexual activity at too young of an age is just wrong and absurd. Obviously kids are having sex at a younger age and we need to protect them from their own hormones.

I say that any kid in any American school should have access to free, readily available condoms while being able to remain anonymous and guilt free. I agree with Judge Kernan but his ruling doesn't go far enough. Any girl whatever her age should be allowed to purchase the morning after pill without her parent's permission and without a state issued photo identification. If you are Pro-Life you must agree with me and you must agree these kids are having way too many abortions. If you are Pro-Choice you must agree with me and lend your support to girls having this new choice over their own body's and destinies. At any rate it seems that we as a nation are finally allowing some common sense to prevail in this very serious discussion of teenage pregnancies and abortions.

Community Info

Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted.
The Lake News Online ~ 918 N. Business Route 5, Camdenton, MO 65020 ~ Privacy Policy ~ Terms Of Service